Database seeding

Database seeding is the initial seeding of a database with data.

Seeding a database is a process in which an initial set of data is provided to a database when it is being installed .

It is especially useful when we want to populate the database with data we want to develop in future.

This is often an automated process that is executed upon the initial setup of an application.

The data can be dummy data or necessary data such as an initial administrator account.

Entity Framework

\Migrations\Configuration.cs

public class ApplicationDatabaseInitializer : DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<DbContext>
{
    protected override void Seed(DbContext context)
    {
        var UserManager = new UserManager<ApplicationUser>(new UserStore<ApplicationUser>(context));
        var RoleManager = new RoleManager<IdentityRole>(new RoleStore<IdentityRole>(context));

        var username = "Alice";
        var password = "password123";
        var role = "Admin";

        // Create role Admin if it does not exist
        if (!RoleManager.RoleExists(role))
        {
            RoleManager.Create(new IdentityRole(role));
        }

        // Create user Alice
        var user = new ApplicationUser() { UserName = username; };
        var result = UserManager.Create(user, password);

        // Add user Admin to role Admin
        if (result.Succeeded)
        {
            var result = UserManager.AddToRole(user.Id, role);
        }
    }
}

Symfony PHP Framework

AppBundle/DataFixtures/ORM/customer.yml (as in Version 1 of hautelook/AliceBundle )

AppBundle\Entity\User:
  customer_{1..10}:
    username: <username()>
    email: <safeEmail()>
    plainPassword: theLetterA
    roles: [ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN]
    enabled: true

Laravel PHP Framework

app/database/seeds/users.php

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder {
    public function run()
    {
        $this->call('UserTableSeeder');
        $this->command->info('User table seeded!');
    }
}

class UserTableSeeder extends Seeder {
    public function run()
    {
        DB::table('users')->delete();
        User::create(array('email' => 'foo@bar.com'));
    }
}

External links